Bill Gates keynote at CES 2006

To speaka da Microsoft lingo, it was Super Exciting that Bill Gates and co's presentation at CES was webcast. I watched it like a geek enthralled tonight. Here are some notes and quick thoughts from me...

Bill Gates started off by saying that 2006 will be the year of Vista, Office 12 and "the realization of media center as a volume mainstream product". "2006 is going to be a big year for digital lifestyle" He talked about consumers getting more connected, richer experiences - "software is at the center of that" was the main theme during his opening speech. He referred at one point to a "single interface" that works across all the different devices. He then talked about a user's preferences, interests etc being "reflected on those devices". The phrase "software for the user" seemed to sum up this. 

Bill tracks his digital lifestyle - photo Niall Kennedy

Bill also said that the "cross-device approach is a very very important approach - and it'll be "complemented by Live services", for example moving between different PCs. 

He then talked a bit about how these products will need to appeal to mainstream users - people have to have confidence in these things / easy connections, secure, simple, etc. He said Microsoft software has "changed the world of media" -- the technology is "becoming very very mainstream". 

Vista

While demoing Vista, Group Manager Aaron Woodman talked about Windows as "a bridge to communication and entertainment experiences". He talked a lot about clarity and removing clutter - for example there will be tab browsing in Vista, "but with a twist". Called Quicktabs, the MS tabs will enable users to see the state that tabs are in - "to make quick fast decisions".

Bill raps with Timberlake - photo Niall Kennedy

Also featured in the long webcast:

• MTV Urge (Justin Timberlake sauntered on stage to add some pseudo cool factor to proceedings)
• Tablet, phones/mobile - highlighting Palm's Treo 700w, which uses the Windows Mobile platform
• TV ("individualized video feed to you" -- "ads can be targeted to you, "won't want to skip over")
• Media Center ("the other special version of Windows" apart from Tablet)

Media Center as a platform

Joe Belfiore said the "Media Center is a platform" and that "the hardware industry is doing more and more great things over time with this Windows platform". Apparently more than 6.5 million Windows XP Media Center Edition-based PCs have been sold. I enjoyed his talk about services and Windows Live. He showed a tv service, enabling users to find, manage and share personalized TV recommendations (recommendations were also highlighted in Urge, the music product). Then interesting stuff about "activities" in Windows Live Messenger. The crux was that community is factored in to make services do a better job - that's the theory anyway.

Xbox and wrap-up

Finally there was an Xbox 360 demo, featuring Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer slugging it out in a boxing game (Ballmer did some live 'throwing', but it was an Xbox console this time and not a chair). Xbox 360 has become a powerful application for high-definition television, according to Gates.

Steve Ballmer, always a character on stage - photo Niall Kennedy

Bill Gates then wrapped up, saying "2006 is going to be a big year for digital lifestyle". He talked about a few themes standing out:

• high definition (Xbox 260, Media Center, etc)
• partners (e.g. hardware, content, advertising) - "us building the platform"
• "all has to work across these devices" -- user-centric; simplicity
• software centricity

All in all, a long but thorough presentation, showing the range of products to be released in 2006 - and the central theme of 'digital lifestyle' that they'll enable. Engadget has a great round-up, along with Scoble and Dan Farber. There's also the official press release to pore over.